UN to confront US over claims its agents spied on high-level video calls

Tue 27 Aug 2013, 11:00 AM AEST

The United Nations will approach the US government over a media report that its intelligence agents spied on video conferences held by top UN officials, a spokesman said on Monday.

"We are aware of the reports, and we intend to be in touch with the relevant authorities on this," UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters, adding that this meant the US administration.

Mr Haq told reporters the 1961 Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations has become "well established international law, therefore member states are expected to act accordingly to protect the inviolability of diplomatic missions".

A report by German magazine Der Spiegel says the US National Security Agency (NSA) broke the encryption code to allow US intelligence to listen in to UN video conferences.

The measure also involves the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the report said, quoting NSA documents. The IAEA has played a key role monitoring Iran's suspect nuclear program.

It is the latest in a series of revelations about US spying on embassies and UN agencies made since former US analyst Edward Snowden started revealing details of US intelligence tactics.

"Whenever we have received this information in the past we have taken it up with the relevant authorities," Mr Haq said.

Asked about the issue, the US State Department said "the US government will respond through diplomatic channels to our partners and allies around the world when they raise concerns".

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf insists the US valued and cooperated with the UN, often to "share information, including intelligence".

Der Spiegel says the NSA broke the encryption in mid-2012 and within weeks had dramatically increased its surveillance of UN communications.

Meanwhile, the NSA allegedly caught the Chinese secret services eavesdropping on the UN in 2011, the report added.

Der Spiegel also claims the US agency kept tabs on the European Union after it moved into new offices in New York in September 2012.

Among documents provided by Snowden were plans of the EU's premises, which the NSA codenamed "Apalachee".

Earlier reports in Der Spiegel and Britain's Guardian newspaper detailed alleged widespread NSA surveillance of EU offices, including diplomatic missions in Washington and at the UN headquarters in New York.

Revelations about NSA snooping made by Snowden have sparked outrage in Europe.